Thursday, December 14, 2006
the point of being anywhere
...an elongated, existential ramble down rue Velasquez in a far too accessible pocket of Paris . . . i hastened my pace in the direction of 'home' because i was too troubled with what to do, what not to do, what to avoid and what to follow. so, what is the point of being anywhere? why read when you won't remember the content? why question when there's no independent validation of your response? i was wondering today, when can the phenomenology of 'being in love' be validated? when can i rip out of this skin and partake of someone else's experience to ensure that my bearings are correct, that my reactions are justifiable, that these sensations are not as foreign as expected. remember when we were kids and we would share with our parents about how it felt to be rejected, to find joy, to taste of disappointment? their words were so sobering that it seemed as if they were quietly dismissing our experience. only in time and maturity was it understood that what we endured was nothing novel, nothing to boast/shout about. what are the concerns of a teenager to an adult with mortgage payments and job insecurity? only in time is this thoroughly understood.
Thursday, November 30, 2006
thanksgiving cannot be deterritorialized
it is geographically bounded and exclusive to a specific place and people and quickly forgotten once those borders are left behind. paris cannot bridge the distance, asia cannot bridge the distance, and the inability of email to recreate family reunions will also fail to bridge the distance spanned between intensive farming and the divine meal that hides slaughter. happy belated-thanksgiving to those outside the nation-state, to those who are beyond the pull of soft and structural powers and immune to a nationalism that bundles together Mother Goose's diffuse flock in the name of some unitary existence: a mere facade for the perplexity and complexity of hegemonic identity. i didn't do all this..., but strangers are none the wiser, and friends wiser than none. you are left alone in this sordid contemplation which shakes no mountains free of dandruff nor returns plastic bags to their mesozoic roots. you are put powerless in this place when all that can be done is pass.. more... policy...
Wednesday, October 25, 2006
Stealing from a thesis on the analytics of love...
Some recent conversations have indicated that analytical philosophy and this amorphous word, 'love,' will make reasonable bedfellows. Passion/intimacy/infatuation/Agape -- meet Occam's Razor. The analytics of love is a rationalist project that strives to unite 'love' and reason on adjacent pillows, beneath ochre sheets, and upon the bedsprings of sensibility and objectivity. Literature may prove it's the first encounter for this cumbersome duo, at least as far as the analytical scalpel cuts, but it's a field whose expansion could yield immeasurable benefits.
The goal is this: tossing out preconceptions of 'love' which are modeled on irrational and undersubstantiated grounds of reference. If 'love' is a commodity (buy-able, saleable, and fully transferrable) whose efficient distribution is forecast by neo-liberal logic, then the invocation of any tariffs/regulations/protectionist measures/or other barriers to trade will result in inefficiency and net economic loss. Remember: make the pie grow and everyone can have a larger piece. The problem is that some people can't stop at one slice.
So the doling out of love in return for payments (be they kinetic, spatio-temporal, or merely fiscal) will ideally be judged on rational grounds that accord a dependent variable with appropriately chosen independent variables. If our dependent variable, L, at time t is a function of log($) at time t [implicit assumption of non-linear bling-bling effect] and I (intelligence), A (aesthetic merit), S (socialization acumen), T (tennis prowess), and MMS (muffin-making skills) if and only if (IFF) all variables are t-tested as significant at the 1% level. We have attempted more forgiving margins of error, but the danger of making a Type 1 error is drastically more heinous than a Type 2. So boys and girls, please check your functional form before concluding your regression.
Our great mates to the south, Emperor Penguins, had been the Christian masthead of serial hetero-monogamy.
That was until the chinstrap penguin couple Roy and Silo were shacking up in Central Park and eroding Republic heteronormative moralizing over the animal kingdom. Scrappy's migration from San Diego ruined everything, but showed that even penguins know no scarcity of love. New loves will enter our lives, and old ones will exit. But while it's convenient to say that the width and breadth of love can know no finitude, we must fan ourselves back down from the Olympian clouds and remember that love hesitates to forgive, to resolve, and to move on. Imagine an infinitude of resentment, rejection, and betrayal because we delivered our love too freely.
We must be true to ourselves and claim the rights and privileges inherent in this market of love. If your FDI outflows exceed your own net worth, then you deserve more return on your emotions! Competition too high? Devalue your currency and attract capital investment! Worried about the downsides of autarky? Privatize, decentralize, and deregulate yourself to improve comparative advantage! Just remember, if you want to make your own black beans, you must intensify production and give incentives to the black-bean makers. The same applies to love. When you want the satisfaction of attention from members of the fair sex, you must strategize, capitalize, and aim to monopolize.
In conclusion (not nearly), further attention must be devoted towards natural 'scientizing' love with a potent force of analytical rigor and finesse. Then we might come closer to accepting our own inclination to rationalize love as an amalgam of characteristics and social conditions which weigh into the decision of whom to procreate with, how often, and for how long. And as Roy and Silo have demonstrated, let us not delude ourselves into believing that the answer to 'how long' is a given.
The goal is this: tossing out preconceptions of 'love' which are modeled on irrational and undersubstantiated grounds of reference. If 'love' is a commodity (buy-able, saleable, and fully transferrable) whose efficient distribution is forecast by neo-liberal logic, then the invocation of any tariffs/regulations/protectionist measures/or other barriers to trade will result in inefficiency and net economic loss. Remember: make the pie grow and everyone can have a larger piece. The problem is that some people can't stop at one slice.
So the doling out of love in return for payments (be they kinetic, spatio-temporal, or merely fiscal) will ideally be judged on rational grounds that accord a dependent variable with appropriately chosen independent variables. If our dependent variable, L, at time t is a function of log($) at time t [implicit assumption of non-linear bling-bling effect] and I (intelligence), A (aesthetic merit), S (socialization acumen), T (tennis prowess), and MMS (muffin-making skills) if and only if (IFF) all variables are t-tested as significant at the 1% level. We have attempted more forgiving margins of error, but the danger of making a Type 1 error is drastically more heinous than a Type 2. So boys and girls, please check your functional form before concluding your regression.
Our great mates to the south, Emperor Penguins, had been the Christian masthead of serial hetero-monogamy.
That was until the chinstrap penguin couple Roy and Silo were shacking up in Central Park and eroding Republic heteronormative moralizing over the animal kingdom. Scrappy's migration from San Diego ruined everything, but showed that even penguins know no scarcity of love. New loves will enter our lives, and old ones will exit. But while it's convenient to say that the width and breadth of love can know no finitude, we must fan ourselves back down from the Olympian clouds and remember that love hesitates to forgive, to resolve, and to move on. Imagine an infinitude of resentment, rejection, and betrayal because we delivered our love too freely. We must be true to ourselves and claim the rights and privileges inherent in this market of love. If your FDI outflows exceed your own net worth, then you deserve more return on your emotions! Competition too high? Devalue your currency and attract capital investment! Worried about the downsides of autarky? Privatize, decentralize, and deregulate yourself to improve comparative advantage! Just remember, if you want to make your own black beans, you must intensify production and give incentives to the black-bean makers. The same applies to love. When you want the satisfaction of attention from members of the fair sex, you must strategize, capitalize, and aim to monopolize.
In conclusion (not nearly), further attention must be devoted towards natural 'scientizing' love with a potent force of analytical rigor and finesse. Then we might come closer to accepting our own inclination to rationalize love as an amalgam of characteristics and social conditions which weigh into the decision of whom to procreate with, how often, and for how long. And as Roy and Silo have demonstrated, let us not delude ourselves into believing that the answer to 'how long' is a given.
Monday, October 23, 2006
Ghast Haus 5
we have finally found someone to provide us with professional-enough flyers, so I'm thankful for the big improvement over previous ones. this time we'll be playing on Saturday night starting at 11pm. tell your friends, tell your grandparents, and tell your cousins twice-removed it's in their best interest to stroll by Middle Road for some quality industrial/EBM fun for the whole family. either take a cab to The Gas Haus to 114, or huff it from the Bugis MRT station off of Victoria Street.
Saturday, September 23, 2006
Ghast 3 at Gas Haus, 9.21.06
Covenant - Dead Stars
Neuroticfish - Darkness/Influence
God Module - Evolve
Flesh Field - Inside
Destroid - Passion
Birmingham 6 - Israel
Tactical Sekt - Bring Me Violence
Implant - Drugs vs. Violence
Icon of Coil - Love as Blood
Ayria - Horrible Dream
God Module - Sections
Dulce Liquido - Antichristianos
Lights of Euphoria - True Life
next Ghast will be Oct. 5 at the Cafe Bar (Gas Haus), 14 Middle Road, near Bugis MRT
more info? anthonyd@nus.edu.sg
Saturday, September 16, 2006
'if Davos is Mt. Everest...
then the Raffles Forum is Bukit Timah.' - Kishore Mahbubani on whether or not the Raffles Forum seeks to be the World Economic Forum of the East
Larry Summers, current President Emeritus of Harvard University, in describing the dynamism of a global economy discussed how two Stanford PhD drop-outs, Larry Page and Sergey Brin, would later construct a business empire, Google, to overshadow the combined worth of three industries, aerospace one of them. This statement was believable enough and some argued that aerospace has been in decline -- therefore it's plausible that Google is larger than the three.
In actuality Google is worth around $4 billion (US) while the aerospace industry recorded net sales in 2005 of around $180 billion. My point herein is manifold. One component is the absence of proper fact-checking. The claim that a single company's revenue is higher than an entire industry's should arouse skepticism, let alone a comparison against three major industries. Maybe some research assistant fed him something about the Google empire approaching a net worth of $500 billion as the result of some financial misinterpretation. I mean, chalking on extra zeros is easy, we've all done it. I just hope not on your tax returns. That others were not as arrested by this declaration was the second component. I mean, he's Larry Summers --- the man had a tenured post at Harvard by 28. Don't dare question him! And just who are you to think he's wrong?
It's the cult of authority. It happens after reaching a social stature that exempts you from the doubt of lesser minds. Confine them to the blogosphere (how I dread that word) and obscure journals. In the meantime podium stands and business class fares wait for you. But even geniuses err and should be held accountable as such. It's easy to issue this commentary from the comfort of a keyboard and easy GOOGLE access, but all public speakers should be grilled for making ludicrous claims like his. Even ex-Presidents of Ivy League universities.
the following is taken from the September 15th issue of Malaysia's The Star
Top brains meet to debate issues
SOME of the world’s best brains are in town to chew on some of the world’s thorniest problems.
From yesterday, men and women whose ideas rewrite rules, corporate jetsetters who invest millions and reap billions, and influential policymakers whose inflections – not just words – are scrutinised for meaning converge at two back-to-back seminars.
The first, the Raffles Forum, organised by Singapore’s Lee Kuan Yew (LKY) School of Public Policy, will engage a star-studded cast on the school’s natural territory: good governance. It will be the first of what is to become an annual forum.
Nobel laureate Prof Amartya Sen, an economist, kicked off the two-day discussion yesterday, with his perspective on how governments may evolve to run a tighter-knit world spinning ever faster, thanks to the IT revolution.
Prof Sen, who challenged the common notion that food shortage is the major cause of famines, is known for his work in welfare economics.
The acts to follow are likely to be as delectable to the intellectually-hungry. For a start, Paul Volcker will speak on the role of the state in financial markets, leveraging on his well-remembered turn as chief of the US Federal Reserve from 1979 to 1987.
Li Rongrong, China’s top official in a body that runs the state’s corporate assets – the state-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission – will weigh in on the question of privatisation. At another session, an official from oil-rich Abu Dhabi, Saeed Al-Hajeri, will explain how he invests national wealth.
But the most-anticipated encounter is today when Singapore Minister Mentor Lee Kuan Yew and noted American public finance stalwart Lawrence Summers, a former US Treasury Secretary, share the stage and their ideas on good governance.
LKY School dean Kishore Mahbubani could barely conceal his glee on the eve of the launch of the forum, which has been described as Singapore’s Davos.
In an interview on Wednesday, he said: “The biggest payoff is the spectacular launch for the annual forum. It’s hard to assemble a better group of speakers.
“I am particularly proud of the Amartya Sen session ... we start with a big bang. And of course, all the media interest will be on the Lee-Summers dialogue the next day ... we wanted to ensure we ended with a big bang.”
The forum was timed to take advantage of the Sept 13-20 IMF-World Bank annual meetings, he said, with the heavyweights present.
The customary Programme of Seminars that accompanies the annual meetings is co-organised by Singapore’s Institute of Policy Studies. It has scored many firsts, said Prof Tommy Koh, the institute’s chairman.
“It’s the first programme which has a clear focus – Asia In The World And The World In Asia. The first to succeed in enlisting so many thoughtful leaders from the region,” he said.
“My hope is that, on Sept 19, my friends from the IMF and World Bank will tell me this is the best Programme of Seminars they have ever organised,” he added.
It is a sign of the times that both seminars have sessions to deal with a future in which demographics will threaten economics.
The implications of Asia’s ageing societies – shrinking labour force, slowing economies and pressures on pension, medical and long-term care costs – will be debated by a panel of experts at the programme. – The Straits Times / Asia News Network
Larry Summers, current President Emeritus of Harvard University, in describing the dynamism of a global economy discussed how two Stanford PhD drop-outs, Larry Page and Sergey Brin, would later construct a business empire, Google, to overshadow the combined worth of three industries, aerospace one of them. This statement was believable enough and some argued that aerospace has been in decline -- therefore it's plausible that Google is larger than the three.
In actuality Google is worth around $4 billion (US) while the aerospace industry recorded net sales in 2005 of around $180 billion. My point herein is manifold. One component is the absence of proper fact-checking. The claim that a single company's revenue is higher than an entire industry's should arouse skepticism, let alone a comparison against three major industries. Maybe some research assistant fed him something about the Google empire approaching a net worth of $500 billion as the result of some financial misinterpretation. I mean, chalking on extra zeros is easy, we've all done it. I just hope not on your tax returns. That others were not as arrested by this declaration was the second component. I mean, he's Larry Summers --- the man had a tenured post at Harvard by 28. Don't dare question him! And just who are you to think he's wrong?
It's the cult of authority. It happens after reaching a social stature that exempts you from the doubt of lesser minds. Confine them to the blogosphere (how I dread that word) and obscure journals. In the meantime podium stands and business class fares wait for you. But even geniuses err and should be held accountable as such. It's easy to issue this commentary from the comfort of a keyboard and easy GOOGLE access, but all public speakers should be grilled for making ludicrous claims like his. Even ex-Presidents of Ivy League universities.
the following is taken from the September 15th issue of Malaysia's The Star
Top brains meet to debate issues
SOME of the world’s best brains are in town to chew on some of the world’s thorniest problems.
From yesterday, men and women whose ideas rewrite rules, corporate jetsetters who invest millions and reap billions, and influential policymakers whose inflections – not just words – are scrutinised for meaning converge at two back-to-back seminars.
The first, the Raffles Forum, organised by Singapore’s Lee Kuan Yew (LKY) School of Public Policy, will engage a star-studded cast on the school’s natural territory: good governance. It will be the first of what is to become an annual forum.
Nobel laureate Prof Amartya Sen, an economist, kicked off the two-day discussion yesterday, with his perspective on how governments may evolve to run a tighter-knit world spinning ever faster, thanks to the IT revolution.
Prof Sen, who challenged the common notion that food shortage is the major cause of famines, is known for his work in welfare economics.
The acts to follow are likely to be as delectable to the intellectually-hungry. For a start, Paul Volcker will speak on the role of the state in financial markets, leveraging on his well-remembered turn as chief of the US Federal Reserve from 1979 to 1987.
Li Rongrong, China’s top official in a body that runs the state’s corporate assets – the state-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission – will weigh in on the question of privatisation. At another session, an official from oil-rich Abu Dhabi, Saeed Al-Hajeri, will explain how he invests national wealth.
But the most-anticipated encounter is today when Singapore Minister Mentor Lee Kuan Yew and noted American public finance stalwart Lawrence Summers, a former US Treasury Secretary, share the stage and their ideas on good governance.
LKY School dean Kishore Mahbubani could barely conceal his glee on the eve of the launch of the forum, which has been described as Singapore’s Davos.
In an interview on Wednesday, he said: “The biggest payoff is the spectacular launch for the annual forum. It’s hard to assemble a better group of speakers.
“I am particularly proud of the Amartya Sen session ... we start with a big bang. And of course, all the media interest will be on the Lee-Summers dialogue the next day ... we wanted to ensure we ended with a big bang.”
The forum was timed to take advantage of the Sept 13-20 IMF-World Bank annual meetings, he said, with the heavyweights present.
The customary Programme of Seminars that accompanies the annual meetings is co-organised by Singapore’s Institute of Policy Studies. It has scored many firsts, said Prof Tommy Koh, the institute’s chairman.
“It’s the first programme which has a clear focus – Asia In The World And The World In Asia. The first to succeed in enlisting so many thoughtful leaders from the region,” he said.
“My hope is that, on Sept 19, my friends from the IMF and World Bank will tell me this is the best Programme of Seminars they have ever organised,” he added.
It is a sign of the times that both seminars have sessions to deal with a future in which demographics will threaten economics.
The implications of Asia’s ageing societies – shrinking labour force, slowing economies and pressures on pension, medical and long-term care costs – will be debated by a panel of experts at the programme. – The Straits Times / Asia News Network
Thursday, September 07, 2006
Ghast 2 @ The Gas Haus, 9.7.06
last night was much fun and for those who missed out, there's always Ghast 3 on 9.21 to look forward to.
playlist:
+ a night like this - god module
+ rain of blood - die form
+ cleanse - strand
+ space radio - t.o.y.
+ vertex - negative format
+ ascend (feat. dan xue) - headscan
+ ruptura (god mod remix) - hocico
+ better off dead - suicide commando
+ vision - funker vogt
+ lucifer's garden - evil's toy
+ kingdom - vnv nation
Saturday, September 02, 2006
photos from Bethlehem Steel Factory trespassing, Part 0.5
6.28.06 - a visual legacy of the one-time behemoth that fueled the industry of a growing country.
rest well, bethlehem...
rest well, bethlehem...
on the future of identity and the rice krispy trail of completeness
when the confines of the nation-state as we know it tumble down like hammer blows upon Berlin, in whose ocean will you leave me to drown? i'm waving my hands - HELLO! instead of internationalized, you've got sesenta international eyes sizing up and down, expecting an avalanche of dreamsicles and chupa chups. i thought they were a Honduran delicacy, but they're just as universal as tamarind treats and iced shavings in your morning coffee pick-up lines. soooooo, lady - do you take it black, white, or a tad bit in between? i've been indoctrinated with some racial/chromatic(al) pluralism, but all i can offer you is the homogeneity of Mamaroneck and Willow Grove and some Hillsborough-ish version of what life *should* be. i want to impose some categorical imperative, no-thought-required-surrender-your-will-at-the-hawker-stall-entrance with rows of gallus gallus de-beaked of dignity. no,
wait.
that's something i've left behind. yes, there was a flight, or maybe three.. there was white and blue and turbulence and something about the bering straits, one bastard child of adam smith skippering through the seven seas aboard titanium vessels built atop cantonment tressels. eco-terrorists gone aquamarine ballistics, we've got new bunker blasters in the works -- smoke out dem' progressives from their think tanks!! liberals are not liberals, they're just insufficiently conservative.
forget it -- "g. gallus burning down the palace" is a freaky pandemic coming to a Lee Hsiong Noodle shop near you. Ahn Chay on my lips, Ahn Chay on the beak. bocal guillotines and livery performances. what happened to the backseat confessions and midnight compassion for cardboard carrying poster-children of a failed america? i let my compassion be bound in some unorthodox rationalism. no karma, no guilt, no SWEAT! our new economy is 15 perspiration and a 75/10 mix of recycled rainwater and gastric bypass juices.
it's 2;04AM in the New World - i salute you with my dim sum
wait.
that's something i've left behind. yes, there was a flight, or maybe three.. there was white and blue and turbulence and something about the bering straits, one bastard child of adam smith skippering through the seven seas aboard titanium vessels built atop cantonment tressels. eco-terrorists gone aquamarine ballistics, we've got new bunker blasters in the works -- smoke out dem' progressives from their think tanks!! liberals are not liberals, they're just insufficiently conservative.
forget it -- "g. gallus burning down the palace" is a freaky pandemic coming to a Lee Hsiong Noodle shop near you. Ahn Chay on my lips, Ahn Chay on the beak. bocal guillotines and livery performances. what happened to the backseat confessions and midnight compassion for cardboard carrying poster-children of a failed america? i let my compassion be bound in some unorthodox rationalism. no karma, no guilt, no SWEAT! our new economy is 15 perspiration and a 75/10 mix of recycled rainwater and gastric bypass juices.
it's 2;04AM in the New World - i salute you with my dim sum
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